Clint Barton (Earth-2004)
Clinton Francis "Clint" Barton, also known as Hawkeye, is a skilled marksman, a former special agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and one of the founding members of the Avengers. Known for his use of the bow and arrow as his primary weapon, Barton had become one of the best agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., responsible for the recruitment of Black Widow, whom he developed a strong friendship with. After leaving the Avengres for a time, various events around the world convince him to return, and he adopts the name "Ronin", trading in his bow for a sword, but later using both to their full capacity. History Clinton Barton was born in Waverly, Iowa. Barton would never finish high school, for unknown reasons. Barton would develop a unique talent for marksmanship, mainly with a bow and arrow, and had become renowned as the "Greatest Living Marksman on the Planet." Later in his life, Barton had met a woman named Laura and formed a romantic relationship with her. Eventually, Barton married Laura and moved into a farmhouse, before having three children. Clint Barton was hand picked by Nick Fury for his leadership abilities, strategic prowess, combat skills, and his tendency to do what he believes is right even when that conflicts with his commanding officers' orders. Barton would soon come to be one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most elite agents. Of his associates, only Fury knew about his relationship with Laura and he excluded her, their children and farmhouse from all Barton's S.H.I.E.L.D. file in order to protect them. During his mission, Barton had been targeted for assassination by Marcus Scarlotti. Through Barton thwarted the attempt on his life, Scarlotti came closer than anyone else to successfully assassinating Barton. During his time with S.H.I.E.L.D., an assassin codenamed Black Widow, started to appear on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar as a threat to global security. Barton was assigned to Russia where he would carry out the assassination. But once Barton tracked down Black Widow and confronted her, instead of killing her, he saw her potential as a good person and recruited her into S.H.I.E.L.D. Barton would discover her true name, Natasha Romanoff and the two would work closely. Romanoff was then seen as Barton's counterpart and the relationship between the two had developed into a lasting partnership, as well as becoming best friends while they still continued working together as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top agents. Together, the unit would arrange their own tactical missions within Budapest, Abidjan and other locations where they would always be successful, despite never having an extraction plan. The pair became so close that Romanoff became the only other person Barton told about his own family. She became a close family friend to them and had soon adopted an aunt-like relationship. Also, Romanoff told Barton about her painful past with the Red Room and as an assassin. Barton was instructed by Nick Fury to go down into New Mexico and investigate an 0-8-4 that had been discovered. Along the way, Barton found a gas station which was almost robbed until a suited man had intervened. Barton then arrived onto the site where he was put under the leadership of Phil Coulson. Soon after his deployment at the site, an intruder had managed to successfully break into the compound and had fought his way towards their 0-8-4 that they were currently investigating. The Avengers With the Asgardian Loki on the loose and preparing to call an army, as well as the discovery of the Tesseract, Nick Fury finally called in the heroes he had found overr the last few years, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and the Hulk. Along with Black Widow and then Hawkeye, the team became the Avengers, and reppeled the alien invasion, exposing themselves and the existence of Aliens and Asgardian Gods in the process. After a few more years of fighting with the Avengers, Barton left following the Ultron incident to live with his family. Although he tried to leave his hero days behind him, even leaving his classic bow with Fury for safe keeping, Barton found himself unable to stand by when things turned bad. Training in martial arts he got from Romanoff, he became Ronin, a skilled swordsman who was a masked vigilante busting criminals from simple thugs to full on criminal syndicates, becoming a massive issue for the crime boss Kingpin. Rejoining the team Following the events of The Mind Games, Ronin heard of what the Avengers had had to go through to survive, and decided to return to them to help, depite his promise to retire young so he could live with his family. Barton helped the team against Shadelock during The Shadow Wars. Infinity War Clint Barton was present at Avengers HQ, sharpening his sword, when the team got an emergancy you message from Norrin Radd, The Silver Surfer. The Surfer warned them that Thanos was coming, and sought the remaining Infninty Stones, before the message was cut off with Radd's demise. Not long after, Talos reported Q-Ships going to different points of Earth, one heading to the New York Sanctum Santroum. Stark and Barton, along with Peter Parker went to New York to protect the user of the Time Stone, Doctor Stephen Strange. After meeting the Socerer Supreme, the team was taken by surprise as the window shattered, and Strange was pulled out onto the street by the telekinetic powers of Ebony Maw, a member of the Black Order. Ronin was the first to give chase, but was blocked up another Black Order member, Supergiant. Ronin attempted to stab the Alien, but she phased and the blade passed right through her with no damage done. Ronin threw a blade at Maw, who stopped it in midair and snapped it in two. Maw and Supergiant then escaped with a captive Strange in tow, the team returning to Avengers HQ to debate what to do next, against Ronin's advice to follow the Black Order's ship. This prompted Thor to find the Guardians of the Galaxy and free Strange himself. When Thanos returned to Earth, needing only the Mind Stone to complete the Infinity Gauntlet, Ronin was among the heroes who put up a Defense against him to protect Vision. Barton stabbed Thanos in the leg and attempted to slash him across the neck, but Thanos grabbed the blade and disarmed Ronin, bashing him with the back of the Infinity Gauntlet. Ronin was presumably knocked unconscious, but later awoke to witness Thanos snap his fingers, and he and Black Widow stood together as their allies and friends tueined to dust around them. Clint called home, to his wife Laura, but with no reply, went over there himself, finding nothing but dust. Barton fell to his knees in his family home, as the world fell into chaos thanks to Thanos. Category:Earth-2004 Category:Versions of Hawkeye Category:Earth-2004 Stars Category:Versions of Rōnin